Robert McKinley, Senior Analyst/Editor
Robert McKinley is an analyst of the payments industry on a daily basis for 32 years covering payment cards and payment systems from both the business side and the consumer side. McKinley is the retired founder and chief executive of RAM Research, CardWeb and CardTrak. In his prior position, McKinley has participated in more than 10,000 documented news media interviews, testified as an expert witness in two separate $billion+ U.S. anti-trust trials, testified before the U.S. Congress, assisted the GAO with paymentsIMG_2006 (1).jpeg reports, chaired numerous business conferences and provided C-Suite opinion to a multitude of Fortune 500 companies. In retirement, he has continued developing and funding digital media assets as well as contributing payments related analysis/content to a broad list of online publishers, including CardFlash, CardTrak and CardData. McKinley is also a national certified mentor with the non-profit SCORE organization with a focus on assisting Fintech startups. www.robert-mckinley.com

Western Union global payment services launched its Speedpay mpayment service to assist billers in introducing mobile payment solutions to their customers. The Speedpay Mobile Payment App can help companies in financial services, mortgage, insurance, cable, telecommunications and other industries meet evolving consumer bill payment preferences. Upon biller implementation of the Western Union mobile solution, consumers can access enhanced payment capabilities by downloading the biller-branded app from the various online locations and app stores where billers make their apps available. Western Union Payments also introduced its mobile app offering, specifically designed for billers in the utility industry, allowing utility companies to provide their customers with the ability to view and pay bills, monitor usage, and track and report outages via their mobile devices.

Fiserv financial services technology announced Union Bank has deployed its “CheckFree RXP” electronic bill delivery and payment for online and m-banking. The “CheckFree RXP” platform leverages the Fiserv biller network to enable electronic bill payment, connecting thousands of businesses to financial institutions and consumers. Its “Payment Assistant” feature allows Union Bank customers to receive, view and pay all their bills in one place. Customers will retain control over the payment process by choosing the date they want their bill to be paid from an interactive calendar. Customers will also enjoy faster payment delivery, as most payments made via CheckFree RXP can be delivered the next business day or the same day.

FactorTrust underbanked consumer data, analytics and risk scoring solutions announced a joint initiative with FICO predictive analytics and decision management technology. The companies plan to work together to develop new credit risk assessment models for lenders looking to better serve underbanked consumers. With the addition of FactorTrust’s alternative data to the risk assessment, lenders will be able to assess the risk of consumers who may have a thin credit bureau file, or none at all – potentially leading to greater access to credit for the underbanked segment of the population. The FactorTrust database of underbanked consumer loan performance uses best-in-class third-party data sources and contains more than 100 million distinct transaction records covering all phases of the consumer credit lifecycle, updated in real-time.

The Board of Directors of VeriFone Systems announced that Douglas G. Bergeron is stepping down as CEO. Taking his place is Richard McGinn, Chairman and member of the Board of Directors. In McGinn’s place as interim Chairman is Leslie Denend. McGinn has served as a director of VeriFone since 2008 and as Chairman since 2012. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of American Express Co. Les Denend has served as a director of VeriFone since 2005 and is chair of the Company’s Compensation Committee and also serves on the Audit Committee. The Board also formed a search committee to evaluate candidates, headed by Alex W. (Pete) Hart.

EnterCard integrated Encap’s two-factor authentication technology into its “re:membercard” mobile app. Ensuring EnterCard’s customers enjoy simple, seamless and secure access to their financial services on the move, in partnership with ID specialist Signicat, this will provide secure two-factor user authentication. Customers will be able to access their services using the app on their smartphone without the need for hardware tokens, SMS passwords, or other one-time passwords. This will provide EnterCard’s customers with an intuitive, convenient experience, and secure authentication without leaving the app.

Servebase and Movanta integrated to provide Retailers a white label Mobile App. Allowing a retailer to send targeted messages and run a loyalty scheme on their customers’ phones using insights gathered from their payment stream information, the app is integrated to the “ANYpay” Servebase payment gateway. Using the Movanta campaign management tools, the Retailer’s Marketing Department can then use the app to send promotional messages, offers and loyalty points based on a customer’s purchasing activities.

Cardtronics wholly-owned subsidiary, Cardtronics Creative, has acquired i-design group plc. The i-design solution provides the technology and services that transform ATM screens (and receipts) into delivery devices for interactive customer communications by financial institutions, as well as advertising space for retailers, third-party advertisers and independent ATM owners. Built on the premise of helping financial services providers, retailers and third-party advertisers make the most of existing customer communications, marketing and ad campaigns, the i-design solution repurposes the “waiting time” in a standard ATM transaction.

Anderson Zaks independent card payments service provider is working with Adelante card payment solutions provider to deliver a fully PCI DSS compliant mobile payment system. The “MobilePOS” uses the Anderson Zaks RedCard platform and is fully accredited by the banks, ideal for a diverse range of users including local government, charities, the taxi trade, party plan companies, bailiffs, market traders, pop-up retail outlets, hospitality and many others. It is to debut at the Retail Business Technology Expo.

CTS North America launched its “ClearPIXTM” middleware product at the BAI Payments Connect 2013. For human readability and Courtesy Amount Recognition (CAR) scoring when processing money orders and other non-conforming items, CTS’ “ClearPIX” features a set of advanced algorithms that enhance accuracy and image quality when processing difficult-to-read items, such as money orders, WIC vouchers and postal orders. It automatically recognizes the item-type of a scanned document and then applies the proper algorithms to reduce background noise and enhance the contrast on foreground objects, such as the courtesy amount.

[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”0″ ihc_mb_template=”1″] Down .2% since January and .6% since the year ago figure, total payroll employment was up 236,000 jobs in February as unemployment dropped 7.7%, most notably in professional and business services, construction, and health care. This in conjunction with the number of unemployed slightly ebbing to 12.0 million during the month.…

[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”0″ ihc_mb_template=”1″] Down .2% since January and .6% since the year ago figure, total payroll employment was up 236,000 jobs in February as unemployment dropped 7.7%, most notably in professional and business services, construction, and health care. This in conjunction with the number of unemployed slightly ebbing to 12.0 million during the month.…